Portable trigger spray devices are known for the purposes of domestic or industrial cleaning, for example for cleaning hard surfaces such as windows, baths and ovens, as well as for spot cleaning of floor coverings such as carpets. Most trigger spray devices which are commercially available are manually activated, that is to say that the devices comprise a trigger which is activated by hand by the consumer. Most commonly this manual activation generates liquid pressure in a chamber by means of a positive deplacement pump which in turn drives the liquid from the chamber usually through a dispensing nozzle. A conical spray pattern is the most commonly used.
For performing cleaning tasks inside the house, for example cleaning of large planar floor coverings such as carpets and the like, it is necessary that the sprayer dispenses liquid at atmospheric pressure, or low pressure, that is to say at less than 3 bar of pressure at the nozzle outlet.
Moreover, when treating large planar surfaces of home coverings, for example carpets, it is often very difficult to evenly reach the total surface of the carpet with a conical-shaped spray. Indeed, a conical spray cannot reach corners—otherwise, the user has to partially spray product on the walls—, and reaching surfaces underneath furniture is also difficult. DE 19651477 (D1) is a German application to Thomas, Metall und Elektrowerke. It discloses a portable vacuum cleaner with a spraying dispenser for spraying a cleaning composition onto surfaces in a flat fan shape.
While allowing the user to spray a liquid into a flat fan jet, at low pressure for in house purposes, the system of D1 still shows some disadvantages. Firstly, it is still quite tough to reach difficult areas in the house using the sprayer of D1, such as for example, underneath the furniture, because the spray nozzle is located onto the sprayer's main unit, and it requires that the user manipulates the whole sprayer to reach such areas, which is clearly undesirable. Secondly, the cleaning compositions which are used to treat large surfaces may contain some compounds, for example surfactants, which can be irritant for the human mucous membranes. Thus, it is important that the sprayed particles be sprayed at a maximum distance form the user.
So there is a need for a portable spraying device that is easy to carry for in-home tasks, and which is equipped with a means for reaching surfaces which are usually difficult to reach—e.g. under furniture—without having to bend down. There is also a need for a sprayer with a nozzle providing a spray pattern that allows the user to reach difficult areas such as room corners and the like, for example a spray with a flat fan shape.
It is therefore a purpose of this invention to provide a portable spraying device, for dispensing a liquid at low pressure, wherein the spray pattern is in the shape of a flat fan, and which is provided with a means for allowing easy access to difficult areas to treat, and also a means for spraying the composition far enough from the user's body.